No. 34 Texas Tech women’s tennis fell 4-0 to No. 35 Arizona on Sunday after the Wildcats grabbed doubles and closed out three singles courts.
No. 34 Texas Tech women’s tennis ran into a tough road test Sunday as No. 35 Arizona protected home court and handed the Lady Raiders a 4-0 loss in Tucson.
The defeat dropped Texas Tech to 14-9 overall and 5-6 in Big 12 play, while Arizona improved to 17-8 and 8-3 in conference action.
The Texas Tech women’s tennis team had chances to make this match much tighter than the final score suggested, but Arizona took control early by winning the doubles point and never gave the Lady Raiders much room to recover.
In a matchup between two nationally ranked programs, that fast start proved critical.
Texas Tech did get a bright spot in doubles from the top pairing of No. 55 Yekaterina Dmitrichenko and Hailey Murphy, who cruised to a 6-1 win over Zoya Chulak and Ciara Moore.
But Arizona answered with wins on courts two and three, including a tight tiebreak victory by Tanvi Narendran and Martyna Ostrzygalo that sealed the opening point.
From there, the Wildcats stacked pressure in singles. Moore earned a straight-set win over Polina Sleptsova at No. 3 singles, and Chulak followed by taking down Ella Brownback on court six to stretch Arizona’s lead to 3-0.
Texas Tech still had multiple players battling deep into matches, but the clincher came before the Lady Raiders could flip momentum.
Maria Garcia delivered the deciding point for Arizona at court five, outlasting Havana Kadi in three sets.
Kadi answered with a strong second set after dropping the opener, but Garcia regrouped in the third to end the match.
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There were still signs of fight from Texas Tech across the lineup. Murphy and Dmitrichenko had both pushed their singles matches into third sets, while Elena Daskalova was on the verge of forcing a breakthrough at court four when play was stopped.
Texas Tech now heads home looking to reset before a key Big 12 matchup against TCU on Thursday, April 9, in Lubbock.
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